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I farm with my dad for a living and grew up using his Stihl Farm Boss. I had some work lined up on the side this winter and felt bad using his saw to make my own money (okay, I was looking for an excuse to buy a better saw), and after reading a lot of threads on this site, I bought a new 372XP X-Torq in late December. The first few tanks of fuel, it ran perfectly. Then it began doing the following: starts as (I think) it should: pull the choke, fires on the second or third pull, push the choke in, starts on the first or second pull. However, if I squeeze the throttle, the saw dies. If I do nothing and let it idle, the saw will die after idling for a few seconds. If I gently squeeze and then blip the throttle, it will die shortly after returning to idle. If I hold the throttle wide open, it will briefly cut out two or three times before returning to max RPM. If I run it WOT for 5-10 seconds, it will usually hold an idle fine after that, but it will still occasionally die if I squeeze the throttle too quickly. Generally the problem disappears after a few cuts.

I brought it to the dealer where I bought it and described the issue. I showed him the spark plug, because it seemed dark to me (I'm not knowledgeable about chainsaws, just through experience with other small engines). He went in the back, showed it to his mechanic, came back, and told me it had been hot and hadn't been getting enough oil--"what kind of oil are you using?" Told him I'd used the 50:1 pre-mix I'd had to buy from him to get the warranty, and after that, I'd mixed Husqvarna brand synthetic oil at 50:1. He said, "did you shake your fuel can before you fueled up every time". No, I've never done that, but it had been sloshing around in the bed of my truck all day, and I went through the can I mixed in a couple days, so it didn't sit long. So he said the problem was phase separation, showed me a measuring cup on his desk with gas and oil separated. Told me to go dump my fuel and mix new. I asked him if it was possible it needed to be tuned. He said no. Asked him if he could have his mechanic take a look at it. He said sure, it'll be a week or two. I had work to do, so I declined to leave it with him.

Dumped my fuel. Mixed more. After reading threads on this site, I used 93 octane and mixed 40:1. Same result.

I've had other problems that aren't as big of a deal. Two of the three machine screws holding the top cover on were gone in the first half hour of running it. I used Lok-tite after that, and another screw recently broke off flush with the bottom housing during normal operation. Today, I pushed the kill switch to run, and it broke clean off.

Did I buy a lemon? Or is this normal. Starting to feel like the dealer had one that fell off the truck set aside for the first dumb young farmer to walk in. My dad's saw cost half as much, is 15 years old, has been run over by a steel-tracked Bobcat, and starts and runs without fail.

If this wasn't the most expensive tool I've ever bought and still under warranty, I'd be playing with the tuning. Any advice appreciated.
 
It ain’t normal

Your dealer really sucks

these saws need to be checked before being sold, sounds like they pulled it out of the box and just sold it.

To me it sounds like there is a problem with the impulse line or the pump side of the carb.
Point being it is a warranty issue. I would highly suggest you contact husqvarna me warranty 1800 number and deal through them. Tell them the truth in which your dealer couldn’t help you. they will set you up with one that will.
 
Thanks a lot for the reply. I'll do like you say and hope to find a more helpful dealer.
 
Likely just needs the carb tuned, sounds lean on the L side, maybe the H side too, both of which is common for a saw out of the box, all saws need fine tuning the day of sale, and as the weather or elevation changes. Your dealer is incompetent, look for a new one if possible. The other stuff should be covered under warranty as well.


Do you have a pic of the saw? does this shop sell a lot of saws? I ask because they're a lot of counterfeit Chinese saws floating around out there.
 
I agree that it probably just needs a carb tune. After you bought it, they should have put fuel in it and went out and tuned it, then gave it to you.

Things like the kill switch breaking would be warranty, sucks it broke so soon but its just plastic after all.

And on a side note, and not to get off topic but dont sell yourself as a dumb young farmer. Farmers are ESSENTIAL to this Country. It's not an easy job and without farmers none of us eat. It's a very important job and takes much more brain than throwing corn in a hole and putting water on it..........
 
If the plug is black, is your muffler screen plugged? How is your air filter, fuel filter? We need pictures of saw. Agree with above, have that dealer re-tune your saw or find one that will.
 
Wow, sorry to hear about your problems, incredibly frustrating when you buy a pro saw to do work and its not reliable, i can't believe the screws loosened that quickly, dealer should snug everything tight before selling. I agree with Andyshine that it sounds like its lean since they do sell saws usually too lean out of the box, but its puzzling how it ran fine for the few first tanks.....sometimes you have a slight hesitation when new since the piston rings are still 'tight' but that should go away after a few tanks....so the dealer should take it back and partially disassemble and check everything is snug and tight and then check the tune. Also sometimes the fuel line and fuel filter get turned around so the filter doesn't sit on the bottom, so peak in there too.

I wouldn't change tune or do anything yourself in case there is an issue. Those problems shouldn't occur until years of use. I would follow the suggestion to shake the can before fueling though, i don't know how long it takes to separate for ethanol free premix at 50:1, , but worthwhile nonetheless. I also shake the saw prior to starting if its been sitting a long time.

Good luck, hope you get it resolved, but i think you just have to drop it off there before any additional damage may be done since running lean can do damage quick, you dont want to run a saw at WOT for very long out of wood.
 
The only time two cycle oil wil phase separate is if water is in the fuel, or you're using a castor based oil in cold temperatures. As long as you don't keep pump fuel around more than a couple months, and the can is closed tight in a relatively stable environment, it shouldn't be an issue. I'd pop the muffler off and have a look at the piston and cylinder just to be safe, but it's likely just out of tune.
 
Thanks for all the replies--very helpful, wish I'd posted sooner. I had some confidence in the dealer because the first time I went there, there were a couple professional loggers there who I talked to and who were nice enough to give me a lot of pointers and answer questions. They said they'd bought multiple saws there.

Anyway, I decided to give the dealer one more chance today and was up front with him without being confrontational. I know it's hard to run a business and allowed that maybe he'd just been having a rough day last time. Today I watched one of the mechanics tune it (by ear) and when he was finished I asked him what adjustments he made. I'm pretty sure he said he'd leaned the low speed screw and richened the high speed screw, which kind of surprised me on the low end but I could have heard wrong. He said whoever was working the day I bought it should have tuned it but probably did not. When he briefly ran it WOT it sounded like it hit higher RPMs than before. I haven't cut anything yet, but at least the idle and stalling issue seems to be gone. When I get a chance I'll post a video of the saw cutting and maybe folks can let me know if it sounds like it should. Oh, and the dealer also warrantied the stop switch. Still not sure he knows much more than I do about chainsaws (ie not a lot) but it's progress...and a whole lot closer to me than any other dealer.
 
If the spark plug was black it's rich, period. Unless you run the saw wide open cutting the log and stop it mid cut, your spark plug reading is only idle reading. As far as your RPMs, remember the low side setting will effect the high side. Not sure about x-torque or strato saws, but they used to say the low side still delivers 33% of the fuel when WOT. just my .02
 
Thanks for all the replies--very helpful, wish I'd posted sooner. I had some confidence in the dealer because the first time I went there, there were a couple professional loggers there who I talked to and who were nice enough to give me a lot of pointers and answer questions. They said they'd bought multiple saws there.

Anyway, I decided to give the dealer one more chance today and was up front with him without being confrontational. I know it's hard to run a business and allowed that maybe he'd just been having a rough day last time. Today I watched one of the mechanics tune it (by ear) and when he was finished I asked him what adjustments he made. I'm pretty sure he said he'd leaned the low speed screw and richened the high speed screw, which kind of surprised me on the low end but I could have heard wrong. He said whoever was working the day I bought it should have tuned it but probably did not. When he briefly ran it WOT it sounded like it hit higher RPMs than before. I haven't cut anything yet, but at least the idle and stalling issue seems to be gone. When I get a chance I'll post a video of the saw cutting and maybe folks can let me know if it sounds like it should. Oh, and the dealer also warrantied the stop switch. Still not sure he knows much more than I do about chainsaws (ie not a lot) but it's progress...and a whole lot closer to me than any other dealer.
Good you got it sorted, you were smart enough to buy a pro saw and a desirable one too. So now its time to learn how to tune your saw, its not hard once you know the basic rules. Really good carb tuners usually do it a lot. Practice makes perfect, you most likely won't burn up your saw tuning out of wood with no load. Do some reading, even practice on an old 2T O-P-E.
 
The best advice I ever got was brand isn't super important but the dealer is. As long as your ope is from one of the big 3 (husqvarna stihl or echo/shindaiwa) you will be fine quality wise but the dealer can save a big headache when an issue comes up.


Ps. Why is o p e censored?
 
The best advice I ever got was brand isn't super important but the dealer is. As long as your *** is from one of the big 3 (husqvarna stihl or echo/shindaiwa) you will be fine quality wise but the dealer can save a big headache when an issue comes up.


Ps. Why is o p e censored?

Because there's another forum about chainsaws, AboristSite.com. The management here thinks if people don't know about it, it's better for them somehow. Here's an example though where if o p e wasn't censored, no one would have mentioned the other forum...
 
OP, glad to hear the saw seems to be better.

As has been said, learn to tune the saw by ear. I spent the time learning it and developing my ear for it and it was time well spent, wasn't that long ago I was green to the tuning part as well. Now I dont have any issues. It's worth the effort to learn as you will always know if your saw is tuned right and if it leans out you have a better chance at catching it before a meltdown.
 
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